Lightweight Fry Bake Gear and Technique (Video)

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On casual treks where I'm less concerned about counting every ounce of equipment in my pack, I may opt for a luxury here and there.

That luxury might include a fishing rod and a handful of flies, an ultralight packraft for crossing rivers or paddling a lake, or, as featured in this article, a small fry bake.

A fry bake is a deep "pie-type" pan that can be used to fry or bake meals on an ordinary camp stove or twig fire. Such pans are usually six to eight inches in diameter for the solo hiker and nine to twelve inches in diameter for larger groups.

The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), in partnership with the Banks Fry Bake Co., promoted this style of backcountry cooking starting more than three decades ago. But NOLS fry-bakes weighed more than two pounds, and are not high on the list of priority gear for ultralight backpacking crews.

One or two ultralighters can share a fry bake pan these days for as little as 10 ounces (lighter for DIY options).

This half-plus pound (there are a few accessories you might want, as well, such as a metal spatula) can open up a wide variety of cooking options.

This article includes a 7-minute HD video highlighting gear and techniques, including seasoning the pan and making a few different meals.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Introduction
The Ultimate Fry Bake
The Video

# WORDS: 700
# PHOTOS: 4
# VIDEOS: 1

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This topic has 35 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 3 months ago by Jeff McWilliams.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

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May 1, 2013 at 10:14 am #1302423

Stephanie Jordan
Spectator

@maia
Locale: Rocky Mountains

Companion forum thread to:

Lightweight Fry Bake Gear and Technique (Video)

May 3, 2013 at 3:19 pm #1982968

Ed Tyanich
BPL Member

@runsmtns

Ryan,

Nice article and video. I am a bit surprised at the use of flaxseed oil. Everything I have read cautions against heating flaxseed oil. I wouldn't be so worried about destroying the benefit of the omega-3 fatty acids, or even the potential of turning healthy fats into harmful fats, as I would the propensity of flaxseed oil to turn rancid without refrigeration. I generally use organic expeller pressed safflower oil with my frybake.

May 3, 2013 at 11:11 pm #1983073

Ryan Jordan
Admin

@ryan
Locale: Central Rockies

Ed, good comments, and concerns.

Free radicals released from oils can be caused by excessive heating. This is the "bad" part (carcinogenic) of oils, especially "dry" oils (that polymerize) like flaxseed.

Here's how you can avoid having free radicals when you season a pan.

First, seasoning and cooking are two different things.

If you've cooked a lot with oil, you know well that at some high enough level of heat (let's call this the "smokin' point") where the oil smokes, that's bad. Free radicals are being released there and you don't want to ingest that oil. If you are adding food to this state, beware. Toss it out, clean the pan, start over.

But we're seasoning, not cooking.

Ideally, you season below the smoke point. But even if you season above the smoke point, heat til the smoke goes away. By that time, the free radicals have (probably) been all (or mostly) burned off and you're left with a (pretty) safe, polymerized film.

(note the disclaimers in parens :)

And here's another quick trick, that wasn't discussed in the video/article because it's complicated, and we're about simple. But I'm an engineer, so…(insert disclaimer related to fun vs. simplicity here).

Take some ferrous iron salt (sulfate is fine), maybe 100mg / tsp of oil, and mix it with the tsp of oil before you add it to your hard anodized pan (not needed for cast iron pans, obviously)…this improves oil polymerization, maybe it's a polymerization catalyst? I dunno, haven't studied in that much detail yet. I just know that empirically, it creates better non-stick seasoned coatings.

Also a tidbit: if you used enough oil such that globules (drops) "dry" on the pan and make a mottled pattern as the pan dries, you've used to much. A tsp might be a little too much in the little Banks' pan *if* you don't wipe out the excess with a cloth as you cook it.

May 4, 2013 at 9:35 am #1983110

Mike Clelland
Member

@mikeclelland
Locale: The Tetons (via Idaho)

I have a long history of cooking in the Fry-Bake from my tenure at NOLS. I feel like I've a achieved a sort of mastery with this thing.

I feel like I have perfected baking no-yeast muffins and other wheat products. Corn-meal biscuits with cheeze on the inside are easy to make in the smaller "alpine" sized pans.

On a 30-day expedition (like NOLS runs) it's important to eat well. The Fry-Bake system is heavy, but you can create some greasy satisfying meals out there.

Alas – it is decidedly NOT lightweight.

Mike C!

____________________________________

One more thing, you can see one NOLS standard issue item in the photo near the top of this article (the one showing two campers setting up mac & cheeze). THat item is the "Pot-Grips" and it's just a hardware store set of channel lock pliers. THese are steel and weigh in at over 7 ounces.

May 4, 2013 at 12:37 pm #1983159

Ike Jutkowitz
BPL Member

@ike
Locale: Central Michigan

Mike C!
It warms the heart to see you back.

Great article. I'm of the "cook-at-home, just add water on the trail" persuasion, but could easily see adopting this technique when out with my kids on less ambitious trips. Thanks!

May 6, 2013 at 10:07 am #1983728

John Coyle
Member

@bigsac
Locale: NorCal

After a bit of searching I found the fry bake gear here at wildernessdining.com along with a lot of backpacking gadgets.

http://www.wildernessdining.com/fba1.html

May 6, 2013 at 12:50 pm #1983780

Tad Englund
BPL Member

@bestbuilder
Locale: Pacific Northwest

As was said in a Frankenstein movie "HEEEEE'S AAALLLIIIIVE"

Mike, its good to see you your contribution.

I'm too A.D.D. (absence of direct discipline) to try and bake on the trail. But this might be something I should teach the scouts to keep them occupied. It could keep them from carving their names into trees and the like.

Aug 14, 2016 at 3:30 pm #3420195

todd
BPL Member

@funnymo
Locale: SE USA

Was revisiting this to actually try myself and can’t see the video….Help?

Aug 14, 2016 at 4:41 pm #3420205

Ken Thompson
BPL Member

@here
Locale: Right there

No videos seem to have survived the site switch. A few have been restored.

Aug 14, 2016 at 5:44 pm #3420217

todd
BPL Member

@funnymo
Locale: SE USA

Ahhhhh…at least we have consistency!

Aug 15, 2016 at 5:55 am #3420272

DAN-Y
BPL Member

@zelph2

A substitute till it returns :-)

Aug 28, 2019 at 2:51 am #3607868

Jeff McWilliams
BPL Member

@jjmcwill
Locale: Midwest

Resurrecting an old thread. I just got back from doing the northern half-ish of the JMT. Our one luxury item was the Banks 8″ pan. At the end of our first big day, our reward was making pizza using the new quick rising pizza yeast, which was way more satisfying than using tortillas or even the store bought pre-made mini pizza crusts. Topped with dehydrated pizza sauce, string cheese, real bacon bits, and pepperoni.

I’m using one of Roger Caffin’s earlier remote canister stoves with the setup (the one with the FMS-116T burner head).

Making the pizza dough from scratch was a lot of work, so I only offered to do it once during the 13 day trip. For another lunch, we used the same setup bug with the pre-made pizza crusts from the grocery store.

I’ve used the same fry-bake setup with my 7 year-old grandson to make stir fry on a short weekend trip. Ingredients were: Teriyaki stir-fry sauce vacuum sealed in a pouch using a home vacuum sealer, instant white rice, freeze dried chicken, freeze dried broccoli.

It worked tremendously well.
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